UK citizenship, Star Wars Celebration Europe and general catch-up

Wow, I hadn't realised how long it had been since I updated this bloggy! You know, it gets left a day, then another, and the next thing you know it's been nearly a month!!

A few things have happened so let's report shall we…

Carla's UK citizenship ceremony went a-ok on Friday 22nd June at the local register office. My sister Josie and our pal Mark turned up for it. It was quite good actually, if short: a concise ceremony consisting of a speech by the registrar, an oath for Carla to take, us standing for the national anthem, and then the registrar handing over of a certificate and well, that was that….done! Photo time. Oh, the register gave her a "welcome" present…..a pen! Wow!

Afterwards we went over to her workplace and she showed her excitable work colleagues her certificate. We were supposed to hang around for somebody's leaving do, but we made our excuses and went home to schlub around, eat and watch DVDs!

Here is a picture of us two (with our cuddly monkey - he gets everywhere!)

Oh, following on from this, she got her UK passport yesterday, so that's all done with now, thank goodness.

Carla's family fly in from America tomorrow for a week's holiday over here with us. It will be fun to see them but I feel a bit unhappy for them that the weather has been so awful, and it seems unlikely to change for the better. I guess Britain's summer will be a complete was out this year. Apart from our cultural visits next week, I can't wait to see the new "Transformers" film, and perhaps the new "Harry Potter" one in 3D with them!

I attended "Star Wars
Celebration Europe" last Sunday. This was the first official convention for "Star Wars" fans over this side of the Atlantic, following on from the successful "Celebration" conventions in the USA held over the last few years. It was at the huge ExCel Centre in London's Docklands. I had quite a fun time for those few hours on Sunday afternoon: getting a few autographs, looking around the stands, chatting to friends etc. There were lots of things I failed to do or missed but on the whole and from what I saw, I thought it was an impressive show. I loved the huge Death Star at the entrance for instance! That looked amazing. The "History of Palitoy" room was fabulous - definitely one of the best things there. It was great to see some old "Star Wars" video game arcade machines blinking away. The art alley was interesting. Most people seemed to be having a fun time so that was good. My pal Kerry-Anne went to the show on Friday and had the pleasure of getting Mark Hamill's autograph. She also managed to get on GMTV with a question for him. He even gave her a kiss! I think it made her decade! I believe other highlights included the LSO concert, Ian "The Emperor" McDiarmid's talk at the opening ceremony, some of the talks by the "Star Wars" cast and crew, and the general buzz of the place. There were lots of fans in costumes everywhere. Shame it was a bit expensive as of course, the emphasis on these events are to *make money*. Lots of money. It seems the event was a success, so I suppose there will be another show in a year or two, even if the current licence holder has now, well, lost that Lucasfilm licence!

Anyway, today I posted a huge pack of paperwork gathered at this event to my long time "Star Wars" fan pal in America. Hope she gets that lot soon!

Oh, speaking of sci-fi shows, I went to "Memorabilia" at Birmingham NEC the weekend before "Celebration", and it was, well, rubbish. The curse of the summer show! There were no guests that interested me, and only a handful of stalls to look around. So no real 'buzz'. The only thing I picked up were some film poster coasters, which are really nice. I think I will collect my favourite films on these. In fact, I asked the dealer if he could create some 1950's sci-fi ones, including "Forbidden Planet" and "Earth vs the Flying Saucers". Hopefully these will be ready by the November show.

Just to finish, work sent me on some ArcGIS training in Nottingham last week, which was very good and extremely useful! Everything went well with that. I look forward to using the software again on my next project.

That's it for now. I will write soon and tell you all about out little break with the family!

Theatre show review

Something our friend went to see. Sounds fab!

"One Man Star Wars Trilogy" - a review by Sarah

If you love "Star Wars" and possess just one (preferably more) funny bone in your body then give yourself a massive treat and buy a ticket to see Charles Ross perform his "One Man Star Wars Trilogy" show! Ross is a Canadian actor who is currently touring the UK and who claims to have seen "Star Wars" 400 times. Boy, does it show. In his hour long performance he re-creates the entire original "Star Wars" trilogy on stage on his own through sheer energy, physical flexibility, speed, and originality, performing the dialogue, action (including the battles), sound effects and even John Williams' wonderful score. All the character's personalities are there, such as Luke's whining, Han's swagger, R2's cuteness etc. In particular I thought his impression of the Emperor was scarily accurate. Like most people I have seen the original "Star Wars" films dozens of times and seeing Ross compress the stories in such a concentrated yet hilarious manner brought about a comforting feeling - these are films you can cut down to a fraction of their running time and they are still amazing to watch! Overall Ross is magnificent and I can honestly say this is the only show I have come away from with a big smile on my face!

Verdict 10/10

http://www.onemanstarwars.com/star_wars.html

My movie reviews at flixster

I've now got an account at "Flixster", which is basically one of those "friend" sites (like "Facebook", "Myspace" etc) but with a heavy "cinema" fan emphasis. You can list your favourite movies, actors, directors, and read your friend's film reviews. It has been great fun compiling my lists and doing my own mini reviews - definitely a work in progress! This is site I'm sure I'll use a lot.

Rocky

We've been making out way through the "Rocky" 1-6 DVD box-set (called "The Heavyweight Collection"), which I bought on Sunday. So far, we have watched the first three Sylvester Stallone boxing epics. Of course, the standout film is the 1976 original, which is a wonderful feel-good movie about a small time boxer who as the under-dog captures the imagination of the public as he fights the World Champion. A truly brilliant film, excellent script and great characters, which won three Oscars and was a huge box office success.

We've also enjoyed watching the other films in the series, and seeing the style of the films change (because of political climate and culture) as we go through the late 1970s and into the 1980's.

Takeshi's Castle

Not much to report over the last week, except that my wife's application for UK citizenship has been approved, and we have a date for her citizenship ceremony in late June. Thank goodness that's all organised! I'll have to take some piccies on the day.

We bought some bargain DVD's yesterday at HMV in town. "Interview with the Vampire" and "Frankenstein" & "Bride of Frankenstein" (1930's versions) set. "Interview" wasn't bad, a bit slow and talky, but the production looked beautiful. The real standout performance for me is from a very young Kirsten Dunst, playing the young vampire, Claudia. We will watch the Frankenstein films this evening. Classic B/W Boris Karloff.

It is the weekend so I have managed to have my Saturday and Sunday dose of "Takeshi's Castle" on Challenge TV. What a wonderful no-brainer this is! I love it and laugh all the way through every episode! :)

"Takeshi's Castle" is a 1980s Japanese game show, edited into half hour shows and humorously voiced over by Craig Charles (Lister from BBC's "Red Dwarf"). 100 contestants have to make their way through highly physical (and very silly) games. If they fail a challenge, they are out. If they pass the challenge, they get to go onto the next game, and eventually if their agility and skill hold out, a crack at the showdown where they try to storm the castle and win a prize (although I've never seen anyone win!) Some of the games along the way are quite evil, like "Skipping Stones" or "High Rollers" - contestants have a good chance of coming home battered and bruised! It's all a bit silly. Great stuff though. :)

..sort of like the Japanese version of Jeux Sans Frontières ("Games Without Borders") or "It’s a Knockout" for British viewers.

Update @ 4pm - got "Rocky" 1-6 box set in ASDA!

Bank Holiday Monday, DVDs and so on

Well, it’s a typical Bank Holiday Monday, so it's raining, cold and grey. No matter, as we had no plans to go anywhere today, just into town to mooch about the shops, and buy a cast-iron skillet and muffin tin. Oh the height of frivolity.

Last week, we got to see the following DVDs:

"The Last King of Scotland"

"Rocky Balboa"

"Stormbreaker"

All three were very entertaining. I can see why Forest Whitaker won the Oscar for playing Idi Amin in "Last..". A gripping performance, about an extreme individual. The production was nicely done on what looked like a big tv budget.

The last "Rocky" film was great to watch as well. I thought Stallone completed the story well and sent the character off on a high. I will search out the Rocky 1-6 DVD box set now!

Oh, the trailer for "John Rambo" is up and running on-t'internet. Looks action packed, and features some way over the top violence. Stallone once again is our hero in the jungle, destroying the enemy with his explosive arrows. 1980s all over again!

"Stormbreaker" was just a bit of fluff: 'James Bond - Junior' really. Still, the film was quite good fun to watch. I enjoyed laughing at Mickey Rourke's 'chewing- the-furniture' role as the baddie, and Bill Nighy (who seems to be in everything these days, including shows about meerkats) as the head of secret service operations. Ewan McGregor turned up for a day's shooting and car racing (he is only in the opening sequence) as well.

Oh, our pal Mandy came down over the weekend, and we were lucky enough to visit Warwick Castle on Saturday. What a brilliant day out this is, especially if the weather is nice like it was for most of the day. Glad we caught the jousting as well. Heck, it’s a bit "Hollywood" but there ya go.

Bizarre happenings at the sci-fair!

On the morning of Saturday 12th May (prior to our "Eurovision" revelry that evening - see my last post) I went down to a sci-fi collector's fair at the Leofric Hotel in Coventry. I had never been to this particular event, and as it was local I thought I would check it out. I wish I hadn't bothered, as it was, well, rubbish! Still, it was free entry and I got a couple of laughs out of it, and I managed to chat to a pal who was there as well as some other fan types. Anyway, disorganised chaos and small (about 8 dealers) was the order of the day here, at least for the first couple of hours. Most of the celebrity guests I didn’t recognise as they either appeared in sci-fi tv or small grade-B films, so no real need to bother with autographs this time. Have a look here at the guest list.

There were fans milling around not knowing where to go, bored and confused looking staff, and a general sense of disorganisation about the place. I think the real chaos came from the fact that there was a Smallville/Supernatural convention ("Asylum") going on in the same hotel at the same time, hence hundreds of fan girls clogging up the crowded corridors getting excited when they glimpsed Jensen Ackles. I really think the two events should have been kept separate. One table sold me a photo of actress Alison Mack, which they said I could get signed. Ok, groovy. However, they failed to tell me that this actress was part of the convention ONLY and not the sci-fi fair. So in the other part of the hotel I wasn't allowed to see her as I wasn't a convention guest! Oh well, at least they gave me my money back for the photo (I then found the photo on the net later….for free!)

The most bizarre thing happened early on as the crew/bouncer types were escorting actor Jensen Ackles from one room to another: a mad fan girl leapt on him and kissed him on the lips! Of course, she was wrestled to the ground while Jensen was hurried into a nearby lift. She then tried the "lemur leap" attack again and was restrained and removed from the hotel! In 17 odd years of going to shows, I've never seen anything that bad! I guess they had a crowd control problem. When I left to pop over to Forbidden Planet, she was crying outside and her mother was giving her a talking to. Haha!

(Mentions it all here.)

Still, before meeting up with Sarah I managed to have a mooch around Coventry shops including Waterstones, where I picked up the fantastic "The Making Of Star Wars" by J.W.Rizler. This was as birthday pressie to myself. Great book, worth buying even just for the photos. It covers the original 1977 film from its early conception, script development, casting, filming, the visual effects and release. The hardback version has additional stills and drawings in the back, so go for that one, collectors.

Catch ya'll soon…

Eurovision madness and my birthday!

So the walking holiday went fine, our internet works, and we are now addicted to watching crappy American infomercials on the satellite shopping channels. Life is good!

Our friend Sarah came up to stay with us over the weekend, the main reason to listen to Terry 'BBC God' Wogan yammer on through the "Eurovision Song Contest" and of course, as a bit of a social as we hadn’t seen her since "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" came out! (a big 'Hello Sarah!' when she reads this). Yep, sad I know, but we are all fans of this TV institution. The show is great to watch with a few glasses of wine! Some of the performances are quite, how shall we say, 'out there' on planet crap. :)

Anyhoo, we loved our entry: "Flying the Flag" by Scooch. Top campy pop… great fun, and featuring wonderful flight attendant costumes!! Shame no one else in Europe thought so as the voting put us second from last (just above Ireland). It seems the political voting has been getting worse over the last few yeas as it has now become the "Eastern European Song Contest love-in". Still, there ya go….the show was fun all the same. Why that les-bo Serb won with that dirge I have no idea. Our non-UK favourites were Ukraine (a Christopher Biggins look-a-like with a star on his head), a cross-dresser from Denmark, and the Belgian entry sung by what looked like the love child of Jay Kay (the lead singer from Jamiroquai) and Lenny Kravitz. Unfortunately, Belgian disco boy got kicked out in the semis. Shame, that track was proper bo! Carla also liked the French song - I admit, that was a fun performance. Especially when they ran around the stage. Sarah loved the Belarus song that had a heavy 007 influence. Have a look at these bizarre acts here!

Oh, I became 35 years old on Sunday, so we had choccy cake and (at least I had) the remains of the previous night's plonk!

More silliness tomorrow.

Our recent holiday

Ye gads, I must add to this blog! So here goes with some recent stuff….

We were on holiday from late April up to bank holiday Monday….which was pretty good. After I made a quick trip over to Great Yarmouth to see mum and dad and sort out more junk in the attic, we did a day walking around the beautiful town of Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire. We had a great day of country walking in gentle green hills and sunny weather. Nice picnic as well. On our way home, we stopped off in Birmingham and got loads of Chinese food in Chinatown. Carla made several yummy meals with this!

A couple of days later we moved on to Shropshire. What a beautiful county, and so close to us! The first day we stayed in Ludlow. The town is ok in a sort of old-y-world-y middle-class kind-a way. The castle ruins are certainly worth a visit and the woodland near to the river is lovely to walk in on a sunny afternoon. Lots of very tame ducks there! Shame the stupid fair was in town to clog up the market place, and we had the usual trouble with getting decent vegan options when it came to eating out. Great B+B though! Anyway, afterwards we moved on to Church Stretton for a few days to go walking in the picturesque hills. This was with a group of fellow walkers from all over the country, and lead by a local expert. Not bad, but I think that we prefer to do our own thing, as we felt a little restricted by going on a set path and having to walk with others. Also, the food in the hotel was rubbish as once again, these idiots don't know the concept of a vegan diet….or even soya milk. Still, the actually walking was fabulous, as the countryside is stunning there. No wonder they call it 'Little Switzerland'. Thankfully we had nice weather up to bank holiday Monday, when the rain and mist descended on us when were up walking the Stiperstones. Thank goodness for waterproofs! Two days before, on the summit of Caer Caradoc it was hot and sunny!

I need to get the photos sorted out, as we had a film to finish in our 35mm camera. Hopefully I will remember to take them into ASDA and get them on-line soon.

...more of my catch up blogging tomorrow…

I'm back!

Hello world!

At long last, we are back on-line here at Tate central. Yaaay! We got Sky satellite TV got installed a couple of weeks ago (oh, "Takeshi's Castle" on Challenge TV is fantastic!) and we are also now on Sky broadband. For some reason, my old account with Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange/Whatever_they_are_calling_themselves_this_month died in early April. So now we have a fab new Sky livebox flashing away in the corner, which provides us with a link to the outside world and the fun that is internet geekdom.

….now of course, I have to type something worth reading!

Well, I'll try and catch up somehow over the next few days. Loads to cover apart from our usual DVD and film watching, as we have just come back from holiday in Shropshire, where we did lots of hill walking in the beautiful countryside.

:)

internet down!

Yep, our internet at home is buggered. BT engineers and Treadwell the "Star Wars" robot have been informed. So apart from this post (done in a hurry from work) there will be nothing until further notice. Pity, as I have loads to write about.

Hope you are all well out there! :)

Some films.....

...that we've watched recently!

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan": As offensive as the censors would allow, yet rather interesting to watch. Sacha Baron "Ali-G" Cohen takes on the role of the bizarre Eastern block journalist touring the USA, and thanks to his rather rudimentary grip of the English language, this results in some amazing reactions. You will *cringe*! Maybe 'the joke' wears old over the course of the running time, but overall "Borat" is a very funny film. It features some hilarious moments, whilst providing a disturbingly sharp look at ordinary people's attitudes and opinions. Racism, sexism, narrow-mindedness are all exposed.

Oh, one of the cut scenes on the DVD that features a poor supermarket worker is comedy gold!

"The Queen": A marvellous film which focuses on the British Royal family during a time of national crisis: it is August 1997 and Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed are killed in that infamous Paris car crash. Helen Mirren is wonderful in this role, as are the supporting cast. Apart from dealing with a delicate time for the Royal Family, it explores the early relationship between her "old" values and traditions, and the new vision of the country from the recently elected Labour party. Tony Blair (ingeniously played by Michael Sheen) has the difficult task of re-connecting the public with the Royals. Worthy of its Oscar and box office success.

"Talk Radio": A late 80's Oliver Stone film about a Dallas radio 'shock jock', Barry Champlain. Stars Eric Bogosian, who also wrote it with Stone, and is based on the original stage play and book. Excellent and tense character study of an arrogant person who thinks he can help the common man though satirical attacks on his listeners. A complex film that I will definitely enjoy watching again.

I also bought "Doom" and "Clockwise" DVDs the other weekend as they were cheap, but we haven't watched them yet. I remember hiring "Doom" about a year ago and enjoying it for its sheer grade Z naffness! Soon we want to see "The Prestige", "The Notorious Betty Page", and give "Casino Royale" another viewing.

Meerkats and Lemurs

Just got to tell you all about two wonderful shows on TV at the moment. "Meerkat Manor" on BBC2 and "Lemur Island" on Channel 5. I don't usually watch nature programmes but I'm hooked on these two! Both shows follow the lives of these little creatures - and they are both fascinating and cute in the own little ways. I particularly like the Lemurs when they sit "Buddha" style-ee in the morning sun! Haha! :)

A Ring-tailed Lemur...sunbathing!...and some Meerkats chillin' out!! :)

Saturday cleaning and citizenship paperwork

It's been an easy going Saturday - didn't do anything special today. Carla was at work so I managed to do a few bits in the flat before going over to meet her, and do some food shopping on the way home. Cleaned the computer's internal fan out as the whole machine was *rattling* due to being clogged with black dust bunnies! Ugh. Then I cleaned the shower out and did a whole load of laundry, while watching "The Pink Panther" on DVD. I also managed to fit in a Tom Holland workout (I have two of his DVDs.) I like doing these but admit I don't work out enough for it to count (over the last three weeks, only 1 workout per week.) I seem to have lost my way with fitting them in! :(

As I type here, I'm looking at the DVD and bookshelves to my left, and they are a bit of a mess! Hmmm....need to have a re-think and a sort out. Also, Partners (the Stationary shop) in town have a really nice glass computer desk for sale, which if it fits nicely in this alcove, I may well go for it. Trouble is, I'll have to upgrade to flat screen monitor as well. I don't have one yet as this iiyama one has worked perfectly for years and provides a lovely crisp image.

Yesterday, I took half a day's annual leave to come home early and go with Carla to a local solicitor to get her citizenship documents all in order, so we could send them off for her UK citizenship application. I guess we have to wait now for a few months while the Home Office do their stuff. Let's hope for a speedy and positive decision. (see Carla's blog here.)

Good luck to our pal Tess who may well soon start a spot of world travelling and work experience. Her blog is in my list of friends. I have also added Mary Jo's blog in that list. Go there for loads of fun Star Wars chit chat!

Life on Kazakhstan

Here is the latest. Not much since the last entry but, hey, typing keeps me off the streets.

~ Carla passed her "Life in the UK test" today in Birmingham. Woohoo! This means she can hand in the forms and apply for citizenship. Well done the Mrs!

~ I'm reading a fantastic book called "The Prestige". It's about the rivalry between two stage magicians in the late 19th Century. Spooky and odd, but riveting. Christopher "Batman Begins" Nolan made the film version of this, which is out on DVD next week. Looking forward to seeing it, but I will finish the novel first. Looks like a great cast and I like Nolan's style.

~ We watched the latest episodes of "Life on Mars" and "Heroes" this week. Both shows are very entertaining, if a little bizarre...but that's what makes 'em fun.

~ We have the "Borat" DVD waiting to be watched. Probably will fit that in tomorrow evening. Looks like a great laff! :)

~ Still drawing Scottish woodland maps at work. This project will go on for a looooooooong time!

~ I still have to sort out that huge pile of papers/junk in the spare room. A weekend job, me thinks. Hello paper recycler.

a visit to the theatre and a birthday social!

Carla and I had Friday off work, so we got tickets to see the musical "Chicago" at the Cambridge Theatre, central London. Musical theatre is a growing interest of ours, and as we had both enjoyed the 2002 film version of this long running show, we thought it would be great to see it on the stage. It certainly did not disappoint! The show was really fun to see. The vocal performances were excellent and the dancing top notch from all the cast. Tony Hadley plays the role of Billy Flynn, Chicago's top sleazy lawyer. He was brilliant, but I've always liked his voice from his Spandau Ballet days. The two leading ladies were excellent as well. The songs are the stars of course and they are simply great. Highlights included "All That Jazz", " Razzle Dazzle", "Cell Block Tango" and "We both Reached for the Gun".

I think the show is definitely better than 'Wicked!', which we saw last November: the lyrics of the songs are superior and are more 'show classic' and less 'pop' in tone. It also has a dark feel to it, which really interests me, not surprising as it came from the same team behind "Cabaret" (Bob Fosse etc).

After the show finished we headed on up to Milton Keynes to stay with Mark. It was his birthday that weekend so people were congregating there to celebrate. Another friend of ours, Jane, was already there. They were kind enough to meet us at the railway station (in the rain) and after the hugs and hellos; we caught the bus up into the city centre to do some food shopping at Sainsbury's. Alas...no PG tips monkeys in stock! (see earlier post). When we got back to his house in the suburbs, we had a nice little meal and watched some of the newer "Battlestar Galactica" series on DVD. I also gave him his Darth Vader birthday card (which went nicely with his Anakin Skywalker one somebody had got him!)

The next morning we had a slow lazy start. We had short walk around Furzton Lake, which is in the park at the end of Mark's road. The large open green area and lake is pretty in a 'new man-made' kind of way. Mark informed us that the homes around the lake are quite expensive, so I suppose they are all owned by "city" types and the successful dot.com lot. It was lovely to see the a large variety of waterfowl, and seeing some geese having a bit of an argument was sooo funny! Nice walk as the sun was shining but it was soooo windy!

When we got back to Mark's place, some other pals turned up (Tim and Sharon) and after the obligatory cup of tea, we all walked to Bletchley Park museum. There we met up with some other pals (Jamie, Theresa and Joe) and we spent the afternoon there looking around. The museum is excellent and fascinating. It mainly covers the part played by the code breakers of the 2nd World War: the 'Enigma' machine and all that. There are also other mini museums/exhibits that cover such things as cinema projection technology, old toy trains and toy collections, and life in the early part of the 20th century. I particularly loved seeing the old toys and packaging materials! The mansion itself is an interesting example of varied architecture, having been built from different design influences. Shame we couldn't see more of the interior. (Pic is of us with the giant goose statue at the museum!)

We had had a little while back at Mark's place, then said our good-byes and made our way home by rail. We got home and had a lovely dinner while watching the latest monsters of the week (killer Do-dos this time!) in Episode 4 of "Primeval".

Today (Sunday) was rainy all day. Ugh. We did venture out for a few essential groceries and buy the film version of "Chicago" at HMV, which we watched over lunch. Fantastic!

poor Wall-E misses the latest episode of Lost!

I see that the CGI wizards at Pixar are developing a flick called "WALL-E", about a cute looking maintenance robot who tries to clean up a polluted future Earth. It looks like it could be wonderful. The robot looks sweet. Let's hope its not to maudlin and schmaltzy though. If its half as good as "Happy Feet", I'll be chuffed.

In the news today was the great BSkyB TV v Virgin Media fist-y-cuffs. Oh dear, I do hope this is sorted soon. At least one of my pals (hello Mandy) has suffered here because of two billionaires having an right ding-dong over cash. So at the moment, as far as I understand it, if you subscribe to Virgin Media cable tv you no longer get Sky One and Two, Sky Sports or Sky News etc…and you wont until they come to some arrangement (i.e. BSkyB TV get the dosh they want from Virgin - which looks unlikely to happen). Bugger. What a way to miss seeing "Lost" or "24"!

At the moment we only have the five basic network channels. I always new it was a good idea to invest the money into our DVD collection instead!! Still, I'm looking into getting Freeview soon, as its included in the awesome Panasonic DVD recorder I want to buy when it comes down a bit in price...its not in the top price range of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but those players costs the equivalent of the GDP of an small African nation, so a bit beyond my shopping basket yet!

a busy weekend

Hello all,

A few things to mention as way of an update....

We had a packed and generally fun weekend, for once doing something "social" three days running! On Friday evening, Julie and her fiancé Pat visited our place for dinner, as they were in the Midlands to attend a sci-fi convention in (of all places in the known galaxy) Hinckley! It was really nice to see them again and introduce Carla to Pat. The Mrs cooked a wonderful meal as usual, and they left on a mission to get their own "Munkeh" toy from ASDA! (having seen ours on top of the telly!)

Then on Saturday, we went into Leicester to meet up with my sister, Josie, to sample the delights of the city's vegetarian restaurants. We ended up in a place called 'East' and stuffed ourselves from the 'all you can eat' buffet - dangerous when I'm around. Then it was a mooch around the shops, Dominoes toy shop being the highlight for me. The 'throw the pigs around' game (can't remember what it is called) was awesome! Before Jo went to get her bus home, I remembered to hand over some old military toys (plastic tanks etc) to her to give to her husband -he is a collector. What was fun was also giving Jo her old diary from 1970, which I found in the attic the weekend before.

On Sunday we went down to the Coventry Odeon cinema to see the newly released film "Hot Fuzz" with our pal Mark, a fellow blogspot man. The film stars Simon Pegg etc from "Spaced" and "Shaun of the Dead". There are loads of reviews of this excellent flick all over the net, so no need to waste space here. Sort of "Midsomer Murders" meets "Die Hard", with West Country accents! Suffice to say that I found it very funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed the cracking action sequences at the end. Highly entertaining, if a little over-long. I loved the swan, BTW! Also recognised the main location (Wells, Somerset) as we had been there about 18months ago. We had some transport issues getting back though as we had to wait for AGES for our bus. :( oh well....

We've started to watch "Heroes", the new US TV show about some remarkable people who have a special super powers. I suppose you could say this is "X-men" without the bright costumes. Really good so far (three episodes in)….. We are both getting hooked as the show is developing nicely. Thanks to Mark G for recording the episodes for us from his cable!

Oh, I got us tickets to see "Chicago" (the musical) on Friday in London at the Cambridge Theatre. Can't wait, as I loved the film.

…..I really must update this more often!!

at home in Gorleston - sorting out toys!

As the title suggests, I did indeed go home to see my mum and dad at the weekend. Long journey over to the east coast but it was ok as I snoozed a lot of the way on the train. This was my usual "hello....your son is here to help!" type visit (so I did the shopping, cleaning etc) but I also did some 'attic' work, which meant going up into the dusty darkness at the top of the house and attempting to sort out another box of old toys/comics/junk. Some of it went to the charity shop, some to the paper recycler, and some will be up for sale soon, such as the Action Man and film related toys I decided I don't want anymore. (Superman plane for instance.) Quite fun when you get into it, this 'muckin out' lark. You find things from the past that bring back simple but nice memories. :) And of course, it was nice to see the parental units as well. I hope to go back soon with the Mrs...so she can help me sort out more junk. haha!

I got mum and dad a PG tips monkey, which are being sold as part of special packs of PG tips t-bags! They love him, and he now lives in the living room!

Watched episode 2 of "Primeval" on Saturday night and as it played, I compared notes about the episode with Carla via txting on our mobiles. I had to tell her what happened at the end as he mother phoned just as the giant time travelling millipede attacked our heroes. This is good, I like the sillyness of it all, For once ITV have produced something worth watching! I guess they are going for the Saturday evening "Doctor Who" market with this.

Carla and I are hoping to get tickets to see the musical "Chicago" in March. It would be fun to see Tony Hadley strutting his ex-Spandau Ballet self on stage, in the role of Billy Flynn.

Oh, I must type a big "good luck" wish to my pal Trudi, regarding her nearly completed Phd! :)

Survivors, Doctor Who etc

We've been watching some old BBC sci-fi tv recently. This all started with me borrowing every episode of "Survivors" (on videotape...yes TAPE!) from a work colleague just after Xmas. So back in January over a couple of weekends and a few nights we ploughed through all 38 shows. Brilliant stuff, we both absolutely loved it. We found series 1 and 2 really interesting and generally well written, and we were hooked. Series 3 goes a bit odd: I think the producers lost their way and its such a shame not to see more of Greg Preston, but at least they made Charles 'character more interesting to watch. Especially when he starts his ranting about the re-birth of society and then attacking bad guys by swinging out of trees with a swift ninja kick.

After completing those, I decided to buy some classic "Doctor Who" on DVD. The beeb have released some impressive sets of various episodes with new and rare extras. I picked up "Genesis of the Darleks" and "EarthShock", both top banana adventures ("Genesis" = Tom Baker as the Doctor, 1975, and "EarthShock" = Peter Davison as the Doctor, 1982.) Really great fun to watch! Love those wobbly sets.
"Genesis" is quite dark and violent actually, and marks the first appearance of Davros the Darlek creator. Great character, love his psychotic character. I have the say the production design was impressive considering the budget and time restrictions. "EarthShock" is great, as I love the Cybermen and Peter Davison is my favourite Doctor. Not sure what Beryl Reid is doing in this, though. I think I'll pick up some more episodes, such as "The Sontaran Experiment" when time and money allows. And then perhaps some "Blake's 7"!! haha!!

I read that the BBC is planning a 6-part remake of "Survivors". Let's hope its done properly and isn't naff or cheesey. In the meantime, I got series 1 on DVD to watch again later in the year.

The top TV news is that series 2 of the excellent "Life on Mars" starts on the beeb tomorrow evening! Fantastic. Hopefully we'll find out what's going on with this 1973 time travelling...and of course, lots of '70s cop show car chases and gritty "The Sweeney" style punch ups! Wonderful. :)